Legislation and policies are needed that prioritize economic responsibility to ensure the prosperity and well-being of future generations
Bill Clinton said that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare”, and I agree.
A federal law once again making abortions legal nationwide should be passed. Making abortions illegal or severely limiting access (e.g., abortion bans after six weeks) will not stop them from occurring. During the 1950s and 1960s, an estimated 200,000 to 1.2 million illegal abortions occurred per year. One analysis estimated that in 1967, 829,000 abortions were self-induced or illegal. [1] Abortions after 20 weeks should be limited to unusual circumstances such as severe medical concerns including fetal anomalies and threats to the life of the mother. Abortions later in pregnancy can be minimized by eliminating barriers to medical care including the need for some women to travel to a different state for treatment and “waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, parental notification laws, and laws prohibiting health insurance or Medicaid from covering abortion care.” [2]
Making abortions legal will make them much safer. Deaths in the U.S. associated with illegal abortions from 1972 – 1974, the year before the Roe v Wade decision to the year after the Roe v Wade decision, declined from 39 (in 1972) to 19 (in 1973) to 5 (in 1974). The estimated number of illegal abortions decreased from about 130,000 (in 1972) to 63,000 (in 1973) to 17,000 (in 1974). [3] Abortion was legal in some states in 1972, resulting in a reduced estimate of illegal abortions in 1972 relative to the 1950s and 1960s.
By rare I mean that women and men throughout the country should have ready information about and easy access to contraception. Unplanned pregnancies should not occur because a woman or her partner was unable to obtain contraception.
1. “Special Analysis, Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue?”, Gold, R.B., The Guttmacher Institute on Public Policy, March 2003 www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2003/03/lessons-roe-will-past-be-prologue
2. “There’s no such thing as a “late-term abortion”, Planned Parenthood blog, October 13, 2022. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/blog/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-late-term-abortion
3. “Illegal Abortions in the United States: 1972-1974”, Cates, W. and R. Rochet, Family Planning Perspective, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Mar. – Apr., 1976)